“This is a very special story I have in my hands,” Mr. Masi said two years ago. By that point he had committed to a decade documenting the story, “Poonam’s Tale of Hope in Bhopal,” and to funding Poonam’s education. He has now launched a crowdfunding campaign hoping to raise $125,000 to continue the project. Over the years, he said, there have been waves of photographers and journalists making short trips to Bhopal. “The thing is, in Bhopal, a lot of people get promised things,” he said, “but sometimes they don’t get delivered.”

Just over a month before the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, he is back in India. He recently celebrated Diwali with the Jatev family, photographing Poonam and her oldest sister with sparklers in their hands as lights twinkled above them.

Life for Poonam looks much different than it did in the rain five years ago.

Mr. Masi plans to keep visiting the Jatev family during the next month as he works on stories timed to the Bhopal anniversary. He has already spent the first few of the dollars he has raised. Not long before he arrived in Bhopal, Poonam’s grandmother died, leaving the family with funeral expenses and little time for work. The donations helped them get back on their feet.

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The Photographers Giving Back Award winning photo of Poonam in the late monsoon rain. This image was the beginning of Alex Masi's photo essay on Poonam and her family.Credit Alex Masi

But generally, he said, they are doing well. They now have a working toilet and a gas stove. Poonam’s father uses a cart Mr. Masi gave him to sell corn, eggs, papayas and mangos. Her mother sells a fried rice cake snack, called papard. Eventually, they hope to save enough money to open a small shop.

Poonam, who is now 12, is no longer shy. She tells Mr. Masi about school. They look at books. She’d like to be a teacher when she grows up.

But first, she’ll need to finish her education.

Mr. Masi’s fundraising campaign is layered (he provides breakdowns of his expected costs on a detailed page on one of his websites). Part of the donations — $41,000 over 7 years — will go toward a boarding school outside of Bhopal for Poonam and her older sister Jyoti.

“We will put them into any quality boarding school that is willing to accept them,” he said, adding that the money will also pay for books, English lessons, uniforms, shoes and the cost of travel to see family.

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During celebrations for her birthday, Poonam, 9, was about to blow out a candle on her cake.Credit Alex Masi

Another portion will fund an educational project for local children. Mr Masi also needs to raise money to pay for his own travels and expenses. And the final portion of the funding will go to the later stages of the project, years from now, when Mr. Masi plans to print a book and hold exhibitions, which he’d like Poonam and Jyoti to attend.

If he raises enough money by February, when Mr. Masi plans to return to India for a mentorship program, he will set up meetings with boarding schools near Bhopal. With the help of an assistant who lives there all year, he will act as a guardian, meeting with teachers to discuss the girls’ work. Poonam’s parents are not upset by this arrangement, he said.

“They understand that we are not trying to take their children away, but we’re trying to help them,” he said.

Mr. Masi said if he doesn’t meet his goal, he will pay for the girls’ schooling — a “regular” education, not boarding school. And he would find a way to make trips to Bhopal whenever possible. Perhaps because the project is unlike what most photographers have been able to do, Mr. Masi is open to experimentation.

“If people have any advice, or they want to contribute — even just by helping me understand things that are not clear to me,” Mr. Masi said, “I am open to listening.”